Nick Kent

To mark the 40th anniversary of the singer’s death, we reprint the NME’s obituary, taken from Rock’s Backpages, in which Nick Kent casts a wry eye over Drake’s Cambridge education, assesses his output, and contests the coronor’s suicide verdict

Syd Barrett, the most famous recluse in rock, is dead. It would be easy to mourn the founder of Pink Floyd as a casualty of drugs and mental illness, says Nick Kent - but his songs will inspire musicians for generations.

With Guns N'Roses, he was one of the biggest - and baddest - rockers on the planet. Now his new album is a decade late (and still not completed), and his tour has collapsed amid riots and no-shows. Is Axl Rose finished? By Nick Kent

His TV show is taking America by storm, he's dined at the White House, and now the queen wants him to play at her concert. Not bad for an ageing heavy-metal rocker from Birmingham. Nick Kent tries to make sense of the Ozzy Osbourne phenomenon while Alexis Petridis tunes in to The Osbournes to see what all the fuss is about.